Saturday, February 21, 2015

Lay's South Africa has a new flavor that South African and Portuguese fans will probably enjoy. This bag is Prego Sauce flavored... NO, Not THAT Prego Sauce. Prego Sauce is a Portuguese Sauce used on Prego which is Flank Steak that has been tenderized. Prego can usually be found in Prego Rolls, which are sandwiches made of Prego inside of Portuguese bread (called "Paposeco") with Prego Sauce on top. The Prego Sauce itself is a creamy, bright orange, Portuguese sauce made with vinegar, garlic, onion,
spices, bay leaves, other herbs and a hint of Chilli's. The Portuguese sandwich is a favorite in South Africa and now the sauce flavor can be found here in this bag. The bag is a Limited Edition release to coincide with the 2015 Cricket World Cup, with this bag and the regular range potentially carrying tickets to the Cricket World Cup in a random bag. Love the promotion, and the unique flavor, very fun. Looks good South Africa.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Are you missing the Wavy Milk Chocolate Covered Lay's from Christmas? Well hurry up and drive to Canada, because our Northern Neighbors have released the bag in celebration of Valentine's Day. I'm guessing that just like it was a seasonal Holiday item here, the same will apply to this batch, meaning it may be gone very very soon. Canadians who want to read my review of the American bag can check it out here. They are definitely a home run, and I'm looking forward to them making their return next Christmas.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The thrill of the secret bags is coming to Greece! Greece has launched their Μάντεψε τη γεύση (Guess the Taste) Mystery Flavor contest. The rules are simple, Greek consumers can hit up their local shop that carries Lay's and pickup any of the 3 Mystery Bags; Purple, Blue, or Green. Then they are asked to guess the flavors and submit those guesses to www.LaysGuess.Gr And The bags might be giving up a couple of hints...

The Purple Bag (#2) shows off Tomato's and Peppers and Onions, The Blue Bag (#1) shows off Chicken and a variety of spices, and the Green Bag (#3) shows off Cheese and Scallions. Could these be the ingredients in each bag?Each bag represents a dish created byaward-winningChefHectorBotrini. If you guess a flavor correctly you'll win 10,000 Euros. (NOT BADDD)

So, what do you think these could be? Have you tried one? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Well well... Here is a US bag I've never seen nor heard of. I was driving from Phoenix, AZ to LA after enjoying the Superbowl weekend festivities (my Pats won, eeeee), when I pulled into a random truck stop for gas. The place was massive and on my way down the chip aisle I discovered these. I figured I had to pick them up. They're called Simply Lay's and they make a very clear distinction that they are free of artificial flavors and preservatives, as well as being thick-cut. The ingredients list is wonderfully short; just Potatoes, Expeller Pressed Sunflower Oil, and Sea Salt. I ripped this bag open mid-drive and taste tested them. And sadly, they were very very very unimpressive. The Salt Level was flat out scary. It was like licking a salt brick. I figure this is done to compensate for the cheap quality of flavor in the potatoes Lay's uses (literally the chip alone was flavorless), and also to compensate for the lack of crazy oil mixes they use that usually impart flavor in their chips (like Corn and Canola). The chips were beautiful and had a nice yellow color with very rare burnt bits. I included a chip in this photo for you to see how large the chips were on average. Most were bigger than the Lay's logo (this is the large $3.49 bag to give you a size comparison)... and VERY few were broken, which was cool. But, these chips had something just straight-weird going on with the texture. The closest thing I can compare it to is staleness. The chips are thick cut, so they have a hard crunch, but then the center is kind of soft, and somehow the combo makes them taste very stale... and I don't know if it was legitimate staleness due to the lack of preservatives or just because these chips are wack... it was very weird and off-putting. The weirdest thing though was, the freshness of the sunflower oil. See, with such a flavorless chip, after I ate a few chips and drove, I started to get that taste you have after you eat shelled sunflower seeds. The nutty but light flavor of Sunflower. Since I was driving, not reading the bag, I didn't connect the dots, and I thought it was suspicious (hmm, why do I feel like I just ate Sunflower seeds? Weird) but, reading that the oil comes untarnished from an expeller press, it makes perfect sense that the oil would retain it's maximum flavor and infuse that into these chips. So, I have to give them a bit of kudos for the quality of the cooking oil. But, sadly that's where it ends.

I'd love to see them use a more flavorful, and high quality, potato for these bags. And generally, you find that kind of flavor in smaller potatoes than those Goliath slices I was pulling out of the bag. I'd also like that flavor to speak for itself, so a less heavy handed approach to the salt would have been welcomed. If both of those elements had been on point, I could forgive the weird texture.

At the moment, this is not the healthy alternative to Lay's that I would be looking for.
And in regards to that, I'm sure Lay's know it's not up to snuff, because a little internet digging told me that this bag started it's life as "Natural Lay's" then "Simply Natural Lay's". Since then, the term "Natural" has received quite some criticism, so the collection was re-branded as "Simply Lay's" in January of last year... which is a much more suitable name for what is in this bag.

All in all, I like what they were attempting to do with this product, I'd just love to see it perfected.

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Welcome

The Chip Report is an attempt to taste every Frito-Lay chip around the world. We're here to talk about international flavors and marketing, compare them to the status-quo here at home, and track down hard to find bags like a scavenger hunt. You can join in too, let us know about bags of chips you've come across in your travels!

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Looking for info about a particular flavor? Use the search bar to find what you seek. Want to browse similar flavors? Each entry is tagged by Style of Chip, Country of Origin, Flavors/Ingredients, and Type of Entry (i.e. Review or News etc.)... if you want to see more, just click on the tag that peaks your curiosity. Stories about new flavors being released are usually labeled "Gotta Get At This". Stories about new contests being held around the world are labeled "Contest". Reviews are labeled simply by bag name.Enjoy!